Description:
~~The Billings Gazette, Montana’s largest newspaper and the state’s premier provider of sports content, has a full-time opening for a savvy and creative digital/online sports editor to play a key role in growing statewide coverage.

We recently put a sports reporter in a city 140 miles away to cover Montana State University athletics, enabling us to use University of Montana content from a sister paper. We have also created the new position of high school sports coordinator for Lee Enterprises’ four daily properties in Montana with the goal of expanding and streamlining our coverage from border to border.

Our new hire will work closely with The Gazette’s sports editor and the Lee-wide coordinator to produce compelling stories about athletes and teams across the vast canvas that is central and eastern Montana. He/she will also work with The Gazette’s seven full-time and two part-time sports staffers to ensure a dynamic, prolific, clean and consistent web and social media presence.

Duties will include, but not be limited, to:

& Serving as the gatekeeper for the sports component of The Gazette’s newly designed website.

& Producing video interviews and features about athletes and teams, with an emphasis on stories appealing to online and print readers not only in Billings but in three other major Lee properties in Montana.

& Building a statewide network of sources and goodwill through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, phone calls and one-on-one visits with the goal of unearthing stories of broad appeal.

& Growing our customer base on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms through consistent, compelling and creative uses of news, information, features, video and images.

& Producing creative non-traditional video- and podcast-oriented features such as Best Gyms, Best Rivalries, Best Teams of the ‘60s, etc., to attract readers to our website and social media platforms.

& Driving varying distances to write features and the occasional offbeat game story for our online and print editions to complement video, audio and potentially a blog.
& Complementing stories written by staffers with video and/or audio.

The Billings Gazette is the go-to sports section for an audience that follows more than 150 high schools, two NCAA Division I universities, several small colleges, a short-season minor-league baseball team, an Indoor Football League team, world-class rodeo, and much more. Interest in sports in small towns and on the state’s seven Indian reservations is especially high, along with UM/MSU.

As a regional hub, Billings is a rapidly growing city surrounded by some of America’s most picturesque country -- a short drive from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, world-class fishing, a plethora of outdoor activities and a surprising array of cultural amenities.

The Billings Gazette offers an excellent benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, paid holidays and vacation. We are an equal opportunity employer. Visit our Web site at The Billings Gazette - Montana & Wyoming News (www.billingsgazzette.com) to see what we’re doing and to learn more about our company at Lee Enterprises, (www.lee.net)

If you’re interested, send a cover letter, resume, three references and work examples that demonstrate why you’d be a great fit to Lee Enterprises: Search for Jobs (www.billingsgazette.com/workhere)